Awaaz - November 5th & 6th, 2010
Dhamaka was back to headline another Awaaz performance, but this one was far different than any in the past. First, on Friday night, Dhamaka had an unprecedented number of wardrobe malfunctions with a pagh coming off mid dance and other dancers burdened with loose chadre. The dancers did well to overcome the hurdles and made sure to continue executing the set to perfection. Saturday night, Dhamaka did what no other Duke team had done before: immediately preceding the last song, the dancers formed a tunnel in the middle of the stage - a tunnel filled by five of Dhamaka's finest alumni who were in town to support the team at the show. Entering to the lyrics, "Let's take it back to the old school," the alumni danced alongside the current team, hitting all of the choreography on point. Needless to say, the crowd went wild. This unique opportunity to blur the class divisions was incredible to be a part of, and Dhamaka looks to find more ways to get alumni involved in the future. Check out the entire performance here (but if you're in a hurry, skip to 7:38 to watch the final segment!):
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HWfa1v2bPsY
Mercer Rangoli (Competition) - October 23rd, 2010
Mercer will be one competition that every Dhamakan will forever remember. It has gone down in all of the dancers' books as the most fun competition and the most fun weekend at Duke. More popularly referred to as the competition of the Hot Tub Time Machine, Dhamaka traveled down to Atlanta, GA by way of co-captain Romeen Sheth's home. After a night of practicing and pugh tying, several Dhamakans decided to spend hours in the hot tub outside. The newly bolstered group of sophomore guys even stayed up in the hot tub until 5-6am, despite the furious captains' scoldings and the always health-conscious Kejal Shah's demands that they stretch. Needless to say, everyone had an incredible time the next day, despite having 2 hours of sleep. Dhamaka also put on one of the greatest dances they had yet. With a set that would have won for sure at a normal competition, Dhamaka was proud of its performance despite the questionable (to put it lightly) judging that led to 4 placing Georgia teams and that also led to the demise of the competition entirely. That weekend, they were proud to be Dhamakans - and the bonds created with the other dancers will never leave the team. Check out our mix here:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LFElhEoYAA0
Homecoming - September 24th, 2010
Homecoming is always the performance that sets the tone for the rest of the year. In Fall 2010, Homecoming would have to be one of our best, seeing as less than a month later, we would be traveling out-of-state for Mercer's competition in Atlanta, GA. The performance was everything it needed to be and much more. Welcoming in a new class of Dhamakans and performing before one more class of Dhamaka alumni, the team didn't have to do much to generate hype. With the music blasting and the hundreds watching, Dhamaka went HAM. But the most important lesson the team learned from this performance was to always take pictures and a video; otherwise, there's nothing other than text to put on your website...